“Nerts, you're scared to.”
This post's title is a line from Raymond Chandler's story “Killer in the Rain,” much of which later found a home in The Big Sleep.
Chandler often reused characters and situations this way. Among other things, the practice encourages readers to compare the stories to the novels and to wonder, “What if Chandler had done things differently?"
“Killer in the Rain” includes the smut bookstore, the blackmail, the shooting on Laverne Terrace, the car plunging off the pier, and the wayward daughter readers will know and love from The Big Sleep. The young woman's name is Carmen in both versions. In the novel, she's Carmen Sternwood, daughter of Gen. Guy Sternwood, an oil millionaire. In the story the father is a more quintessentially American self-made man:
“Dravec, Anton or Tony. Former Pittsburgh steelworker, truck guard, all-around muscle stiff. Made a wrong pass and got shut up. Left town, came West. Worked on an avocado ranch at El Seguro. Came up with a ranch of his own. Sat right on the dome when the El Seguro oil boom burst. Got rich. Lost a lot of it buying into other people's dusters. Still has enough. Serbian by birth, six feet, two hundred and forty, one daughter, never known to have had a wife. No police record of any consequence. None at all since Pittsburgh.”That's a character I'd like to have known more about.
***
Sadly, nerts has lost the currency it enjoyed in Chandler's day. I'll try to say “Aw, nerts” at least once this month. Won't you do the same?In the meantime, what expressions have found their way from your books into your vocabulary? I've always loved one picturesque way that Andrea Camilleri has his protagonist, Inspector Salvo Montalbano, express exasperation:
“The inspector cursed the saints.”© Peter Rozovsky 2011
— The Wings of the Sphinx
“Cursing the saints, he flipped onto his back and did the dead man’s float.”
— Rounding the Mark
“Cursing the saints, he got up, went into the bathroom, turned on the shower, and lathered himself up. All at once the water ran out.”
— The Snack Thief
Labels: Andrea Camilleri, miscellaneous, Raymond Chandler, Salvo Montalbano, The Big Sleep
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 5:50 PM
91 Comments:
I like Nero Wolfe's use of one word whenever he is pleased by something: "Satisfactory." He rarely uses it. Archie Goodwin says in one of the books that on the rare occasion when Wolfe says that something Archie has done is 'satisfactory.' Archie feels something he can't define. Wolfe's 'satisfactory' is the same as someone else jumping up and down and shouting with joy.
In Annie Proulx's short story, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (not a mystery or thriller, I know), there is a line that I find myself using all the time: "If you can't fix it, you have to stand it."
Sad but true.
My wife and I have several, but our favorite is from Chandler, I forget which book.
If she thinks she made a little too much to eat of some favorite of mine, the phrase "that don't mean any gets dumped in the flower pot," will often appear.
There are a lot, I tend to pick up phrases from every author I read I think. The main one that comes to mind is from an autobiography by Davy Jones of the Monkees. When something relentless, tiresome or repetitive happened he'd write "north, south, east, west again" and after reading the book, I found myself saying the same thing to myself. I've gotten a few odd looks when I'm overheard.
Well, this is more from the television show House of Cards, where a frequent motif is the scheming and steadily rising Francis Urquart, as played by Ian Richardson, replying to some query, "I couldn't possibly comment."
It's all in the tone.
v word="venting"
Yvette, I haven't read enough Rex Stout to know all the quirks of Wolfe's and Archie's vocabulary, but I can hear Wolfe saying, "Satisfactory." I've never seen any of the television productions of Wolfe, but I still imagine a gruff, grudging voice saying, "Satisfacttory."
Good choice.
Peter
There's a line in the film Bottle Rocket when Owen Wilson just shakes his head and says "It ain't no trip to Cleveland."
Always liked that because unlike "We're not in Kansas anywmore" or any other famous line it hasnt been dulled by overuse.
Dana, I don't which Chandler that line is from, but I once did surreptitiously dump some food in a flower pot at an outdoor restaurant. OK, it was a potted plant, but still.
Glenna, I had no idea Davy Jones had attached his name to an autobiography. How the heck did I miss it?
With all due respect to the man who sang "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" and "Daydream Believer," though, I like Owen Wilson's line better.
Seana, the "couldn't possibly" gives that line a terrific edge. It conjures up a firm picture of an attitude condescending and maybe a bit whimsical. It's a nice piece of writing, just concise enough to be a fine character marker.
I also suspect strongly you may be paying someone off to get all those good v-words.
Adrian: My old newsroom buddy Owen Wilson, seen here walking past my desk.
That is a fine line that Wilson may have written himself. It fits nicely with his brand of laid-back, mildly surreal humor.
I also like: 'Porridge, you know you want it.' Of course from Jasper Fforde's THE FOURTH BEAR. Ha!
I remember that one, and I may have cited it when I read the book.
That's another line worth incorporating into one's everyday life.
Peter, it's called They Made A Monkees Out Of Me and if I remember right was a quite an interesting book. It's been many, many, years though.
I'm not knocking the Monkees. I used to watch them on TV and sing their songs with a group of my friends in the school bus in grade one.
The mantra is "I am Google, and Google is I--I mean me." That's how you get the v-words. Remember, Google is Good. They aren't susceptible to kickbacks.
Yes, you got the Ian Richardson tone precisely. Of course, his flutey aristocratic condescension couldn't possibly be replicated in mere text.
Glenna, I think I've mentioned this somewhere here before, but one of the Monkees lived in Carmel at about the time I did, and my sister went to school with and was friends with his son. It was very disappointing that when said son acted up, the Monkee threatened, and I believe made good on the threat, to send his son to military school.
Seana, I like the idea of a Monkee sending his wayward offspring to military school. Only in America.
Nor will Google ever trample copyright.
Peter
Yes you're right, he probably did right that...in fact its my opinion that the quality of Wes Anderson's films declined when he started taking sole screenplay credit.
I couldn't name any of his writing credits, but it seems to me Owen Wilson has done a bit of writing. If he did not come up with "It ain't no trip to Cleveland," whoever did matched the line to the performer very well.
Peter
I like the way I said "did right that"...and I call myself a professional novelist, dear oh dear.
Well he cowrote the really good Wes Anderson films but then went off to concentrate on acting.
His pastiche of Cormac McCarthy in The Royal Tennenbaums was spot on.
Another favourite line from Bottle Rocket is right at the end when he goes back into the storage facility to save the robber who's had the heart attack. Luke Wilson begs him not to go in because the alarm is going and the police are on their way. Owen Wilson just smiles and says "They'll never catch me...cos I'm fucking innocent."
About a year ago I had occasion to use that line. I was riding my bike without a helmet when I was stopped by a male and a female peeler on foot patrol. They pointed out my lack of helmet and I think the male peeler was for letting me go but his colleague started writing me out a ticket.
I thought of "you'll never take me alive, copper" but in the end I went for "you'll never catch me...cos I'm fucking innocent" and rode off. They did not pursue on foot, but that was only a mild disappointment.
That does make you a professional writer, because professional writers have copyeditors. At least for now.
I'm glad you got away, but it wouldn't have flown in California. If you had seen the zealous pursuit of shoplifters by even bookstore employees you would have just surrendered. We have staff that will run after people for miles. (Not me, but I'm lazy.)
Seana
This is the St Kilda police. Prostitutes and pimps solicit within one block of the station house and the back wall of the police station is covered with graffiti. I'm not saying that they are laziest/worst police in Australia but I'd be interested to hear of lazier ones.
Seana
One Saturday night my friend Scott and I were asked to stop a shoplifter when I worked at Barnes and Noble because the security guards were on break. Both of us refused because he was a really big scary guy. Its a pretty scummy thing to steal from a bookshop, even a corporate bookshop, but I didn't want to take a punch in the face to stop him. Chicken? Yes.
Camilleri's Montabano is a fountain of quotable expressions. Brilliant writer!
Mine is from the hard-boiled detective of Chandler and Hammett, when referring to a dame's overall appearance - Easy on the eyes.
Remember Edw. G. Robinson clutching his chest or stomach, forgot which, and mumbling, "Is this the end of Johnny...?' I always remember him saying "Is this the end of Johnny Rico?" as he dies. But possible he left his last name off. Anyway, memorable.
Maybe I'll get a chance to say that when I go. "Is this the end of
Yvette...?!" Hopefully I won't sound disappointed. Ha!
Adrian, you mean you actually fled cops? Did they shoot at you? Did you force a dubious plastic surgeon to alter your features because you were now a wanted man? Did you turn back and yell, "Nerts to you, coppers!" as you pedalled off?
What can I tell you? I noticed "did right that," but hell, if writers never made mistakes, copy editors would not be the indispensable, highly valued, esteemed, even treasured figures that they are in every newsroom and publishing house in America.
Bottle Rocket sounds worth a look. That's yet another terrific line that you just quoted.
Seana, I'm also glad Adrian took a powder to avoid being collared by the harness bulls and thrown in the hoosegow. Yeah, I can imagine Northern Californians would have run after him; I hear they're a healthy lot.
Adrian, I prefer to imagine St. Kilda's police as laid back rather than lazy.
OK, I give the chattering young woman in this new cafe any combination of "like" and "whatever" totalling four, and I log off and leave.
The food was good, though.
Adrian, you should have asked you bloody manager to go after this guy. I'm mildly surprised that B&N doesn't have a policy of letting shoplifters go out of fear of being sued.
L.M., one could also compile an entertaining list of Salvo's exasperated reactions to Catarella.
Anonymous, "easy on the eyes" is a good one and easy to overlook because it's been around so long and has become more a part of mainstream volcabulary than a lot of similar expressions have.
One definition traces the expression to around 1900, so it may have been around a bit longer than hard-boiled detectives have.
Yvette, it's "Is this the end of Rico?" It's a good line, and its over-the-top schmaltziness works better in jokey references than it does on screen these days, I think.
Peter
The police in Australia, unlike English bobbies, do carry guns, so perhaps it wasn't the smartest thing to do. I was cycling home from the pub however so probably there was an added element of Dutch to my courage.
I forgot to add one more thing about the St Kilda police station. There's a methadone clinic directly opposite it and outside the clinic "drug addicts" openly sell their heroin. So we've got heroin dealers, Russian pimps, prostitutes and graffiti taggers all of whom can been seen through the police station window and they have the effrontery to stop a guy on a bike because he's not wearing a helmet/hasn't paid the bribe money?
What can you get for riding a bicycle while intoxicated?
All I can say is that you've got a nice opening scene if you ever decide to set a story in St. Kilda.
In mixed company I've been known to borrow Wolfe's "Pfui" rather than use stronger language.
In one of Chandler’s letters about plagiarism he remarks “Throughout his play The Iceman Cometh O’Neil uses the expression ‘the big sleep’ as a synonym for death. He is apparently under the impression that is a current underworld or half-world usage, whereas it is pure invention on my part...I shall probably be accused of stealing the phrase from O’Neill, since he is a big shot."
I use the phrases 'the big sleep', 'trouble is my business', and 'crack wise' and the words shamus and peeper. I prefer using Chandler's Bay City and Grey Lake (instead of Santa Monica & Silver lake).
Linkmeister, that's a good one. It will mark the user as a person of distinction, or at least get him some attention.
Solea, I read "Bay City Blues" last week. I was wondering which city Bay City stands in for. Chandler uses it other stories as well, maybe "Try the Girl."
That's a delicious observation from Chandler about O'Neill. He's probably right that he'd be accused of stealing the phrase. He was a genre writer, after all.
I will also mention that my husband has recently started a "couch to 5k" running program and has been known to quote Michael Forsythe's line "Pain is my friend, fear is the enemy" before starting the next phase on the program. It seems to help.
Chandler's letters are great reads, he would've been one helluva blogger. His letters are pretty damn funny. He talks a lot of smack, but is also quite humble, and he answers his fan letters with respect (even if the questions are a bit silly). For example,
Chandler writes back to an English fan, "What do you mean he is 'moderately fond of animals'?"
Glenna, I like "pain is my friend." I should use it to the same end that your husband does, actually.
I will try to use "Pain is my friend" as well as "Aw, nerts!" as soon as the opportunity presents itself.
"Bay City" is actually a pretty common variant for Santa Monica. Numerous small businesses in the area begin with the words "Bay City..." or "Bay Cities..." in their names.
"Realito", the site of Canino's garage in The Big Sleep is actually Rialto, a town Chandler would have been familiar with from the various times he lived in the Inland Empire areas of Cathedral City, San Bernardino, Lake Arrowhead, etc. Many, many place names in Chandler are only slightly tweaked from their originals.
Solea -- I agree, Chandler is one of the great letter writers of the 20th century. His letters are well worth reading by any fan of his novels and/or short stories.
Solea, I may have a collection of his letters lying around from years ago, when I first read Chandler after seeing the Hawks/Bogart/Bacall Big Sleep.
I am taken with the sentiment that Chandler would have been a helluva blogger. I shall keep that in mind.
Elisabeth, Chandler had a good ear. "Realito" just sounds so much better than the real name.
If I should ever have a son, I'm tempted to call him Lash Canino Rozovsky. But the garage was actually Art Huck's, wasn't it?
If I had Russian pimps, heroin addicts, prostitutes and graffiti artists right outside my door, I would probably chase down the helmetless cyclist too.
Actually, I think the last place I lived down by the Boardwalk probably did have all that right outside my door, though the pimps probably weren't Russian. There was a lot of police action, though the people they mainly seemed to hassle were kids.
I have to say that though I don't really like the way people rip off the bookstore, I get pretty annoyed with the gungho pursuit stuff. Everyone gets all amped up, and usually I'm left being the only one waiting on the actual law abiding customers.
Right, Huck's garage. I just thought of it as Canino's because he was the one ordering Huck et al around.
Oh, I thought Junior was going to be named Bluepoint Vance Rozovsky.
Seana, did anyone ever create a cop show whose heroes where bookstore security people who loved the thrill of the chase?
Oh, I forgot to say that Glenna has given yet another example of my thesis that Michael Forsythe is actually a force for good in the world, albeit an unwilling one.
I sense that it's going to be a harder position to support after Falling Glass, but I'll try.
Bluepoint Vance Rozovsky will be Lash Canino's brother. The only question is which one will be nicknamed the Whosis Kid and which the Matzah Kid.
Seana, that may be a bit of a spoiler, but I had the same thought about Forsythe's role in Falling Glass. That's an interesting and maybe even thought-provoking turn for the character.
So, which of your offspring is gonna be nicknamed the Dis-and-Dat Kid?
Well, I'm just talking about the beginning of the book, which is as far as I've gotten, so perhaps we can let it go at that.
We don't actually have any security people, we are the security people. I think a reality show about what it's really like to work in a bookstore as opposed to peoples ideas about it might be eye-opening.
Elisabeth: Maybe my daughter Anna Halsey Rozovsky.
Seana, Adrian talks about the guy who dropped dead during a reading, so I believe there more stories in a bookstore than those between the covers.
Oh, man! That's mean! What about Anne Riordan Rozovsky (that whole Abie's Irish Rose angle).
And, by the way, doesn't the future Mrs. Rozovsky get any say in the naming of this brood?
But I'd ready when she marched down the stairs as a teenager and announced: "I need a man!"
Anne Riordan -- I've been reading "Try the Girl" and Farewell My Lovely side by side.
How could I forget Montalbano's "Sicilians don't kill on Sundays".
Elisabeth, what woman could possibly not want a son named Lash Canino?
Ay, how could I forget that, Solea?
Seana, it might be a though thesis to maintain, but I wish you luck with it.
Oh, and on the topic of the Monkee that sent his kid to military school...personally it's kind of interesting. Do you know which one it was? (I have a guess, but it's just a guess).
A Monkee at Military School would be another fine reality show, I think.
Hmm, I should guess which one you guess sent his son off.
I read Killer in the Rain recently. The line that forced me to start Googling was 'I'm not Dorothy Dix and I'm only partly a prune.'
Google gives me Dorothea Dix, a kind of American Florence Nitingale for the insane, but what is one supposed to make of a 'prune?'
It's not in the hard-boiled dictionaries. So what is it? Soft on the outside and hard on the inside? I'd welcome a more informed definition.
Isn't nerts just nuts with a different pronunciation. Nuts to you if you don't think so, pal.
It was Dorothy Dix, a newspaper columnist who catered to people whose problems were less severe than insanity.
I remember that line; it's hard not to. I think of a prune as someone shriveled up and dried out. I'm not sure who that description would apply to the line, though.
You got that right, brother. Nerts is nuts with different pronunciation.
I have incorporated "nix" and "ix-nay" into my vernacular.
"Prune" in that context = Oxford English Dictionary: colloq. (orig. U.S.). A disagreeable, disliked, or unattractive person; a foolish, or inept person.
"Nix" is also journalese, a word that copy editors love because it fits easily into a one-column headline, although it has passed from use these days. "Hits," "raps," "kin" and "seen" live, though.
I used to fantasize that the head copy editor would ban some expression then announce his decision in an article under the headline
Top dog
nixes
cliché
Elisabeth, I wonder how prune acquired connotations of foolishness and ineptitude. The source of its bad reputation has to be its shrivelled, shrunken appearance. The original fruit can't be at fault. After all, everyone wishes for a plum assignment.
Peter, guess away and I'll tell you if you're right. You have 4 guesses, if you still miss it well...
Well, I'm guessing it wasn't Michael Naismith. I'll take a wild guess and say David Jones.
Thanks for the tip on the correct Dix. I should have known Chandler wouldn't spell the woman's name wrong.
I like looking at Chandler's rewriting. It's always an improvement on the original. Not someting all writers can boast of.
'Her eyes were wide open and mad and had no pupils' becomes 'Her eyes were wide open. The dark slate colour of the iris had devoured the pupil. They were mad eyes.
'Her eyes had no pupils' sounds like a dry description taken from a medical text book so he puts a bit of life into it by saying the 'slate colour of the iris had devoured the pupil,' a bit hyperbolic perhaps but definitely better than the original.
Or 'She was wearing a pair of long jade ear-rings, and apart from those she was stark naked' becomes 'She was wearing a pair of long jade ear-rings. They were nice ear-rings and had probably cost a couple of hundred dollars. She wasn't wearing anything else.'
'Stark naked', as well as being a cliche, shoves the image in your face, so he makes it more indirect.
I think Chandler is a good example for all writers. He shows good writing comes mostly from rewriting. If he'd used a dictaphone as some writers did in those days he wouldn't be quite so fondly remembered today as he is.
Nope, as far as I know he never had a son. Actually as far as I know only 1 had a son and he happened to be the "California kid" of the group. That should narrow down the choices for you. (I can't promise to be right however).
Glenna, I have just found out courtesy of Wikipedia that Mickey Dolenz is from L.A. That same article has what must be a relatively recent picture of him, or more recent than the 1960s, anyhow. He looks like one of the Wild Bunch.
Re prune... I think its reference to a disagreeable person comes from the verb form of prune (cut, trim, etc.) rather than the noun form. But other than that I can't figure out how prune > foolish.
So a prune is someone from whom all the agreeable parts have been trimmed?
Yep, Micky was my guess, but now that I'm looking for it, I can't find what made me think he had a son. I'll blame the time change and lack of sleep, that always works.
v word - subchem - subliminal chemicals?
Glenna, if Wiki is right, it's Tork or Nesmith. The others had just daughters.
I pride myself on thinking only about serious matters.
Solo, I noticed the same thing that you did about what Carmen was wearing when she was found. (I read "Killer in the Rain" a month or two after having read The Big Sleep.)
A comment on Chandler in an anthology suggested that he was a perceptive critic of everyone's writing but his own. He once called hmself an improviser and, said the anthology commment, that was exactly what he was not. His writing was the result of great care.
Sorry, Peter and Glenna, between work and lost internet connection due to power outages downtown, I'm only now seeing your guesses. Here's the answer.
I never met the guy, so I couldn't possibly comment.
The Wikipedia articles on Jones and Dolenz had sections titled "Personal life." Nesmith's did not.
Nesmith is also listed as a businessman and philanthropist. Have a little money, strive to be taken seriously, and you might well tend to send your offspring to military school if they get out of hand. I did used to wear a little wool hat just like his when I was 8 years old, though.
The odd thing is, though, that his son was hanging out with my sister's crowd, so I don't think he could have been all that out of hand at all.
Maybe dad just wanted to erase a blot on the Nesmith escutcheon. Maybe some of that Monkee money kept people from talking. Or maybe your sister was more adventurous than you give her credit for.
No, she was adventurous, but they weren't into a lot of hard stuff. I think it was just grades or something like that. She's about five years younger than me, and I still see some of her pals. Fine upstanding creative types all. But to be fair, this kid wasn't one of the ones I knew.
v word:elitemm--elite military man?
elitemm = elite military Monkee.
I has he same problem with the Wiki site, nothing personal on Michael or Peter. I kinda feel bad for poor Michael, getting outed like that by the article. Sounded like he wanted a nice invisible life.
Seana, you are getting some pretty nice v words.
I haven't see him in gossip columns or on Dancing With the Stars. so I'd say his life is still pretty quiet.
If you want a quiet life, you probably shouldn't live in the home of Clint Eastwood and the Pebble Beach golf tournement. I mean, if you're a former celebrity.
v word is 'sonat'. As in, son at West Point, Sandhurst, or the U.S. Airforce Academy.
Yeah, I'm on a roll with the v words lately.
My v-word has the makings of a good one: philogy
He probably has had a quiet life by celebrity standards. I don't think he's been in the public eye for anything since he won his award for "Elephant Parts."
Think he has his son sent away to maintain that quiet? Hmm, sounds like a crime novel of sordid secrets about to break out.
Or, I could just ask my sister what she knows. Talked to her last night, but forgot. Of course, it's all a long time ago now.
Philogy--love of words?
Or an embryonic form of philology.
It's probably some routine case of a young man getting out of hand. If he had not been the son of a Monkee, his case would have generated no interest.
What's coming back to me now was the surprising conservatism of one these rock'n' roll hipsters. Ersatz though they were.
v word=flyble. Someone should probably take out a copyright on that one right now. First impression is that it' like a marble except, well, you get the picture.
Same here. And I can't resist further juvenile wordplay about enjoying the mental image of a conservative Monkee.
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